How to make friends in a foreign city

Five weeks before my trip to Lisbon, I sent 20 simple DMs on LinkedIn:

👉 “What’s your favorite thing to do in Lisbon?”

Fast forward…

I’m standing in an Airbnb I’d rented for the week, with a dozen strangers, drinking Portuguese wine, and somehow hosting a cocktail party in a city I’d never been to before.

No Google reviews.
No TripAdvisor checklists.
Just real people giving real recommendations.

And then showing up to hang out.

The night set the tone for the whole trip.
Instead of wandering around with Google Maps out like a lost tourist dad, I had a crew.
Stories. Laughter. A sense of belonging.

And here’s the lesson:
You don’t need a five-star venue, a catering spread, or some grand plan.

Sometimes all it takes is:
📩 A simple DM
🍷 A few cheap bottles of wine
💡 And the guts to host

That’s how strangers become friends.
And how a city stops feeling foreign.

Listen to the episode to get my tips.

Cheers!

Eric M.